Mason's fiction has been described by one reviewer as "shopping mall realism," and one of its most conspicuous achievements is its overall appearance of artlessness. This avoidance of obvious stylization is consistent with the aspiration of a realistic writer to present fiction as an accurate and faithful transcription of the real world, not as an elaborate and contrived story. To substantiate this claim to authenticity, Mason dwells upon the circumstantial details of the experience she describes, and this is particularly true of her use of popular culture. In contrast to those writers who depend upon references to other literary works to give their texts resonance, Mason relies upon popular culture as source of many of her allusions. For example, Norma Jean of "Shiloh," as the narrator notes, bears the real first names of Marilyn Monroe.

Shiloh and Other Stories belongs to the literary tradition of the related short...